thedrifter
01-10-09, 04:26 AM
Marine mom turns ankle cast into Corps tribute
By Andrew deGrandpré - adegrandpre@militarytimes.com
Posted : Friday Jan 9, 2009 14:35:57 EST
Anita Nieves Brinkman was emerging from a hot soak in her backyard whirlpool last September when she slipped and broke an ankle, a bout of bum luck the 44-year-old Marine mom eventually exploited to advertise her adoration for the Corps.
Doctors told Brinkman, who lives with her husband in Rowland Heights, Calif., that she would spend nearly two months in a cast. She told them to make it leatherneck red.
Working upside down with her markers and glue gun, Brinkman proceeded to turn her lower left leg into a fiberglass tribute to the Corps. She sketched some flames on the cast — a shout out to her husband, Keith, a former Marine corporal who now works as a firefighter — and plastered the rest with blue and white stars, an American flag, and the service’s eagle, globe and anchor logo.
It got a lot of looks — especially at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, where Brinkman visited her son, Cpl. Brandon K. Brinkman, before he deployed to Iraq with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, and aboard Camp Pendleton, where she stopped to see her daughter, Cpl. Danielle Beard, a member of 1st Radio Battalion.
“My daughter’s gunny said, ‘Talk about a motivated mom — that’s awesome,’ ” Brinkman said.
Now well on her way to recovery, Brinkman attends physical therapy twice a week and walks with only a slight limp, she said. “It was a challenge being on sticks 24/7,” she added, but “it sure was incredible to hear the positive reactions from folks everywhere I went.”
Ellie
By Andrew deGrandpré - adegrandpre@militarytimes.com
Posted : Friday Jan 9, 2009 14:35:57 EST
Anita Nieves Brinkman was emerging from a hot soak in her backyard whirlpool last September when she slipped and broke an ankle, a bout of bum luck the 44-year-old Marine mom eventually exploited to advertise her adoration for the Corps.
Doctors told Brinkman, who lives with her husband in Rowland Heights, Calif., that she would spend nearly two months in a cast. She told them to make it leatherneck red.
Working upside down with her markers and glue gun, Brinkman proceeded to turn her lower left leg into a fiberglass tribute to the Corps. She sketched some flames on the cast — a shout out to her husband, Keith, a former Marine corporal who now works as a firefighter — and plastered the rest with blue and white stars, an American flag, and the service’s eagle, globe and anchor logo.
It got a lot of looks — especially at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, where Brinkman visited her son, Cpl. Brandon K. Brinkman, before he deployed to Iraq with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, and aboard Camp Pendleton, where she stopped to see her daughter, Cpl. Danielle Beard, a member of 1st Radio Battalion.
“My daughter’s gunny said, ‘Talk about a motivated mom — that’s awesome,’ ” Brinkman said.
Now well on her way to recovery, Brinkman attends physical therapy twice a week and walks with only a slight limp, she said. “It was a challenge being on sticks 24/7,” she added, but “it sure was incredible to hear the positive reactions from folks everywhere I went.”
Ellie